Carol Brands calls herself primarily a mother. Born the third of sixteen children, Carol was already a "mother" to her younger brothers and sisters during her adolescent years. After she finished college, Carol continued to work with children, teaching for twelve years.
At age thirty, she married and became a mother to her own eight children, four boys and four girls. Once they were all in school, she worked for another twelve years in a local care center. Now she is thrilled to enter the stage of grandmother, anticipating her ninth grandchild in 2013.
It was during her years at the care center that Carol came to know Katherine Vastenhout, a resident of the center. Several times Katherine commented, "My life should be written in a book!" Carol - who enjoyed writing - responded, "Let's do it!"
And so began the three-year saga of writing Katherine's biography. Writing the stories of Katherine's childhood turned into three volumes; this is the first, telling of Katherine's first ten years, the 1930s, also years of severe economic depression. The second book tells of her next seven years, also the years of World War II. The third book contains the family's move to Minnesota to Katherine's third and last childhood home. Carol comments: "I loved writing these stories; it was so interesting and I learned so much!" Her hope is that you also benefit as you enjoy the life story of Katherine, farm girl of Iowa.
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